Tuesday, 30 April 2019

Chapter 40: Black

Neith didn’t remember hitting the ground but she was there now.She could open her right eye with
considerable effort.The left was fused
shut.It throbbed.

She was being dragged.Sticks and
roots clawed at her thin cotton dress or wedged into her ribs or hips.They poked then stung before snapping, or –
based on the damp heat and protrusion she felt in her side – sometimes pierced
through into her flesh.

She saw nothing but tree litter.It was dappled in light that reminded her of the onset of migraines.

She worked out she was being towed uphill then passed out.

#

Neith came to.She wasn’t being
dragged anymore.She wasn’t sure she was
outside either.She could hear someone
else’s breath.Close.Who?She could feel someone’s legs against hers.Very close.She lay in a loose ball.Her
breath felt stale and hot around her lips.Her face was in dirt.She
attempted to twist off of her left side – away from the blinding pain that threatened
to take her awareness from her.She
wanted to rest her face on the right; so she could regroup.Turning her head brought on flashes of red
and black. She let out a loud breath of defeat.Impacted side for a pillow it was then.It occurred to her that had she succeeded, she would have presented the
eye that was welded closed face-up, preventing her from seeing anything; from
seeing whose legs she felt on her own.

She hurt.Everywhere.Definitely a puncture – somewhere in the
mid-section.

“Go ahead, open your eye.”A soft
laugh.A twisted, sweet, high laugh, to
go with the breath and legs beside her in the dirt.

Neith did as she was told, flinching at the debris that shifted in her
eye cavity as she did.

Were they in a tent?She opened
her eye to mostly dark.She closed it
again.No, there had been dirt...near
her mouth.

She thrust out her bottom jaw and lip and blew up across her face.She reopened her eye.

Neith could see now.She was
pressed up against Ihaka – the smiling assistant, non-wife.The woman lay curled beside Neith on the side
of Neith’s open, good eye – her
right.Ihaka must have been knocked out
and dragged here too.

“Good news – I found one part of me that doesn’t hurt,” Neith announced,
referencing her right eye.

Ihaka didn’t reply.Perhaps she
was too unnerved by the ordeal they’d endured.

Neith’s pained stomach lurched remembering Miles’ wife, Wren, and her
fear of returning to Nydia.Who had
meant Wren harm; done her harm?It
looked like someone had been missing his fix since Wren had left.Were Neith and Ihaka new targets?Part of a sadistic two-fer?“Where are
we?”

“A hide.I built this one myself,
would you believe?It’s one of my
best.”Ihaka’s teeth showed in the dull
light.

“A hide.I’m not sure I know what
that is, but I can guess…”How ironic to
have built something, only to find yourself prisoner inside it.“Why are we here, exactly?”

“That sucks.I had someone I was
meant to talk to this morning.”Her
stomach lurched again.“I get it, He doesn’t take a number.”Nothing, not even a pity laugh.“So, what are you in for?”

“We are both here because Nydia needs us to be.”

Neith could feel her arms were tightly restrained – by inability to
function or some kind of bonds, or both.This alarmed her, because she could see Ihaka’s fair forearm coming towards her face.Ihaka was not restrained.Ihaka dipped her finger under the curtain of
hair Neith had felt fall back onto her face when she’d blown up across it
earlier.Miss Free-hands tucked the dark
strands behind Neith’s ear. Her right
ear didn’t hurt much either.Two body
parts.Win?She grimaced at her own feeble attempt to
find a positive to cling to in order to deflect the wrongness in the intimacy
of Ihaka’s gesture.Neith hadn’t missed
unwelcome touching.

“There.Now I can see that pretty
face of yours.”

Ihaka seemed to believe the young women belonged wherever they
were.Perhaps she’d been here long
enough to be persuaded this was okay.Or
maybe she was being threatened in some other way – maybe that was why her arms
were free.Otherwise she would run,
wouldn’t she?Maybe Neith had a chance
of convincing her to release Neith, although her certainty in explaining the
justice of their current position nagged at her; Ihaka wasn’t upset by where
they were.

With the hair gone, Neith looked towards the horizontal sliver of light
coming into the hide.Far into the
distance, she could see the Snow family’s outhouse, side door, and the top of
their stone wall.

She swallowed bile with the realisation.

“That’s right.There’s a perfect
view from here, don’t you think?”Ihaka’s voice dripped with pleasure.Neith began to fear her co-captured was not captured at all.

“This is what it felt like.To
wait.And watch.”

Nope, not captured.Demented.

Neith’s eyes darted up, down and around in the hollow space.She was confined within what felt like the
void of a boulder.As well as acute
pain.She also felt contrarily
sleepy.She closed her eyes.

“Come now, Miss Neith.I’ve
waited so long for you to wake up.”Ihaka’s fingers ran over Neith’s cheek.Neith pulled away.How long?How long had Ihaka waited next to her in this
space?And could Passive-Aggressive
Hide-builders smell fear?“I’ve almost
had enough rest now.Soon, we can head
up hill – that’s where I’m going to do it.I think I can hold you up again now, to get you there.I have my breath back.”

Neith was out of jokes.There was
no hidden comic relief to pull from this conversation.It was time to scream.Neith spat out muck and she drew her mouth
open before she bellowed as well as she could.She heard most of her voice absorbed in the hollow space, bouncing back
in a spiteful echo.

“Oh, Miss Neith, do you have to be that way?It would be so much better if we could
talk.Isn’t that what you like to do
most?Talk and talk?”

Adjusting to the darkness, Neith could see Ihaka’s brow drawn up in
melodramatic concern.Neith knew then:
Nola had been complaining on Longest Day about this woman.Ihaka – the condescending, too-bright-and-cheery
assistant.Before Neith could try
shouting again, Ihaka gripped her chin, cold and tight, and began ramming a
cloth deep into Neith’s mouth. It stank and soured her tongue with mildew.Neith gagged and thrashed in the small
space.She began to wonder if this was
it – forget the Nydia’s council sentencing her for crimes, or MinSci sentencing her for crimes, she
was going to die inside a rock.She
kicked again with another retch of distress at the stoppage in her mouth.An acute torment of pain exploded in her
leg.She again passed out.

#

Neith awoke.There was no change
to the containment she’d felt earlier on all sides, she was still in the
hide.Her mouth and lips were dry and
sore.The cloth was still in place, and
she began releasing muffled coughs and gagging noises.Ihaka was still there.Asleep, her face close to Neith’s.Inches
from Neith.There was nowhere or way to
move from the sickening closeness.Ihaka
hadn’t seemed injured.Had they been
away so long she was simply tired?

Did Neith have her phone with her?Could she somehow link to her proximity chip to alert MinSci she was trapped with a very
troubled soul?She would need to free
her hands. Then she could tell them – she was inside a rock in the middle of
unchartered forest.No, no phone – she’d
left it stuffed under the couch cushions back at Elle’s.But the proximity chip – surely MinSci had detected elevated stress
signals from her and mapped her movements’ trajectory.Now she would be represented by a steady blip
in one spot.Was that blip so close to
Elle’s cabin that MinSci didn’t
understand there was cause for alarm?Her chip would have marked her at a very
similar location for long periods of time in the past.But not with elevated vitals.

Eventually someone in Nydia or Feichangbei would be alarmed.Someone was coming.Elle had asked her to be quick.Whether they knew Nydia’s bad apples had come
out to play or not, Neith disappearing was unusual.Someone would come looking.All she had to do was wait.She could do this.Swallowing was vile with the gag.Her one good eye was blurring with tears
involuntarily.

Neith stretched very slowly and peered through the line of light down
the hill to the stone wall.Her breath
was ragged.She was close enough to know
the wall was the Snows, but it was too far for anyone there to hear any sound
she could make, even without most of that sound being trapped. That was without
a gag.She looked back to Ihaka.

Ihaka’s eyes were open.

Neith may have wet herself.

“Shall we start over?”Ihaka
coaxed, dipping her head towards Neith.

Neith nodded.Ihaka gripped then
pulled on the cloth protrusion from Neith’s mouth.Neith gulped in fusty air.She wanted to say, Hi, my name’s Neith, and buy some time, you know, “start
over.”Instead she turned her lips
inwards and concentrated on counting with her breaths in and out; one, two,
one, two.

“Neith, we are waiting in what is called a hide.I built it myself.Do you like it?”Ihaka’s every syllable dripped with
satisfaction at having control of the conversation.Neith nodded.Ihaka laughed again.“So quiet!You forget – I know you like to talk.”Neith didn’t want to talk now.She wanted help to be here already.“I learned to build hides with Wren and
Wren’s dad.She was my best friend, you
know – since birth.Her dad was a
hunter.A good one.He used hides like these, taking unsuspecting
prey who never saw or smelled he was there, waiting.”The bile, the bile was back.Neith didn’t want to experience how things
could get worse – she’d thought they couldn’t.Being trapped in a hollow with a tortured human was bad enough, but
adding vomit would be worse.Ihaka continued:
“I begged to go on the hunt.He was
always taking Wren on his trips, hiding in dug-outs, having adventures,
bringing back venison or pork for all of Nydia.It would last a whole week!Everyone celebrated.I wanted to
be part of that.But they always said
no. No, Little Ihaka – the girl with a boy’s name – she doesn’t need to learn
how to hunt.She can help out somewhere
else, do something simple.She doesn’t
have it in her.”

Neith didn’t like where this was going.She needed to speak.She tried
for redirection.“I like your name.I’d never heard it before I came here.”

It was as though Ihaka hadn’t heard her.

“I realise now that it was mostly Wren saying no.I thought I had convinced them.Finally, he took me out too.”She drew a beating breath noisily but failed
to release the sob it promised.“Then I
knew why Wren never wanted me to come.”Ihaka swallowed, and closed her eyes.She was crying now.Neith felt
sorry for her.Also: scared.“She was protecting me.From him.From the things he did to her…out in the hides.”Wren’s
father drove Wren away – having done things that would drive any daughter
away.Ihaka choked but kept
speaking.“But he still loved her, you
know?He even…married her.But not me.I can tell, when he looks at me, he wants no part of it.Of all of it.”At first Neith thought Ihaka was still
referring to her tormentor, through the choking – but Neith sure hoped he was
rotting somewhere incapable of “still loving” anyone.She meant Miles.She had switched to talking about Miles,
midway. This wasn’t about a co-captor airing her grievances in a hide she was
sorry to find herself in.“That’s how I
knew I needed to Atone.I wasn’t
worthy.I deserved to be alone as I
was.”

Neith knew now, there was no third party in this assault.Ihaka was no co-captive.Ihaka had carefully planned all of it.Not Tai – the openly hostile aggressor.It was all Ihaka.Ihaka
had laid in wait and watched.Ihaka had
carefully left notes in shoes, made nettle bouquets, and painted messages in
blood.Ihaka had done all of it without
once being seen.She had laid in wait,
watching.Waiting for this moment?Neith’s imagination of the vile things Wren
and Ihaka had endured were amplified by her being trapped in a physical
reconstruction of the horror scenes they had known.Those poor girls.Neith felt sick imagining being in to this
space with an older aggressor while young and unsure.Her disgust did nothing to quash her growing
fear of what Ihaka was capable of and what “atonement” meant.

“Then I realised: Longest Day was
the perfect time to make it right.All
of it.I could slip away
unnoticed…”She released a tortured
giggle.Neith winced with her one good
eye, feeling assaulted by the sound.She
hadn’t missed the confirmation though.None of the hostile things Neith had found had been Tai’s style.Tai hadn’t hidden anything.“…a sacrifice at the time of harvest could
cleanse everyone; let Nydia be reborn and flourish.We’ve all been stained by what was
done.”

Neith felt paralysed.

No one was coming.

She was on her own – no one was coming to save her.She wasn’t sure how to overcome the fear and
grief that engulfed her.She needed
productive emotions.Pity.She needed to get back to the place where she
was before – where she could feel pity more than fear for this damaged
soul.She could work with pity.But maybe she did deserve this?Neith had
lied to people she cared about and could see no way she could make things
better.She was broken before she came
here.And what had happened to Ihaka –
that wasn’t her fault.Maybe Ihaka could
take care of her own pain and Neith could let her do it.Neith’s life could matter instead of being
used to make decisions she had no right to make.What was the worst Ihaka could do?She could kill Neith.But that was going to happen anyway – she had
been waiting her entire life to die.

But that wasn’t what she wanted anymore.She wanted out.She wanted to
talk to Elle.She wanted to see Miles.She wanted to find a way to keep MinSci out of Nydia.

She needed to get back to pity.Neith considered a much younger Ihaka – deprived the security of an
internal chip for her parents to receive alerts from – trapped, and alone, in a
place like this.She considered years of
Ihaka feeling unloved.She thought of
Tai – not stopping any of the bad things that were happening to his own
sister.She couldn’t get all of the way
back to feeling pity, so a trembled betrayed her fear when she spoke.“I’m sorry.”Neith said.

“You’re sorry!?”Neith felt
Ihaka’s spittle on her this time.She
couldn’t wipe it off.

“I am.” She attempted to swallow the tremor in her voice.“Unimaginable things have happened to
you.Things no one deserves.And I’m sorry for that.”

“I’m pretty sure your leg’s broken.”Pity might help Neith to cope but it wasn’t helping things with Ihaka,
who had shifted the focus back to remind Neith who the weak one was here.

“Right.”That explained a few
things. Like blacking out when she kicked earlier.

“It happened when you fell.It
doesn’t look good.It complicates
things.”Complicated – the word of the
day, the month – the year!“I was going
to help you walk earlier, before everyone woke up.But since you passed out again, we’ve lost
our window.There’s too much risk.”A frustrated sigh.

“Walk…where?”

“To the waterfall.”Ihaka
smiled.

It sent a chilling gasp down Neith’s throat.She could not let Ihaka get her to the
waterfall.Whatever was planned there
was not going to end well.“I’m pretty
sure if I move that leg again, I’ll pass out.”

“I noticed.”Ihaka’s eyes looked
past Neith in thought.“I can work with
passed out.I just can’t do it by
daylight.Tonight.Tonight I can come back and you can hop until
you do pass out, and then I can drag you until you wake up again.”The waterfall was far.Maybe Jamin – bear-like – could do this, but
not some frail teacher’s assistant.

Maybe Neith could make things a little more complicated.“I’m not
sure I can even hop any distance. I think…I think I’m starting to get a
migraine.”

“What?”

“I…I…can’t see very well.”She
closed her eye and lay very still.

“But we haven’t finished!There are things I want you to know, so you
understand –your life is going to matter now.Miles could be with you, I
would respect it if it was God’s will for him to pair himself to a cursed fig
tree – but Miles – everyone, they’re thinking so small.We have to think bigger.You can help all of Nydia.One blood sacrifice could heal so much.”Neith remained quiet, partly to sell the
migraine story, but mostly in fear of this fanatic she could scarcely
understand.She did not want to hear
more of this woman’s version of religion; it resembled nothing she’d seen in
the quiet observances of Elle’s home.Neith hoped maybe the council had been privy to the details of her
arrival, via Jamin.Maybe Ihaka had
heard Neith suffered from migraines.Jamin had reported having searched her and found her and all her things
clear of tech – surely he had needed to explain how he’d managed that.Maybe not – maybe they thought she’d
consented to the search.For the first
time, Neith hoped everyone in Nydia had talked about her medical history, so it
would corroborate her current claim.

Why didn’t Ihaka take care of the sacrifice here?Why the trip to the waterfall?She’d mentioned the hill.Did she need to execute her plan on a hill?Did she need water?

“Some part of you can hear me.He knows.You were sent here right when I knew
something must be done.And I gave you
opportunity to leave.But you accepted
your place here, you accepted this.There is a higher purpose.”Ihaka
seemed to have run out of wind with a fading audience. Even if she hadn’t
bought the migraine, Neith had passed out enough times that it was becoming
clear getting her to the waterfall wasn’t going to be as easy as Ihaka had
envisioned. Ihaka was moving.Ihaka’s
hand was on Neith’s face again.Neith
fought the urge to recoil – or at least hold her breath.“I’ll be back at nightfall with my tools.”
Orange light spilled through her eyelids as the hide’s covering was raised then
gently returned to cast an almost total shadow.

Neith was alone in the dark.Her
imagination had not ignored her rational urge to quieten.No one was coming.And she wasn’t just going to die, she was
going to be part of a higher purpose…involving tools.